This is an architect's drawing of the proposed new Minnechaug Regional High School.

WILBRAHAM – The Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School Committee has voted to seek bids for $22 million in permanent bonds for the new Minnechaug Regional High School.

School Committee Chairman Peter T. Salerno said the School Committee considers it advantageous to lock in an interest rate on the bonds.

Salerno said there has been volatility in the bond market. Interest rates on bonds, which had been at 5.25 percent, have been reduced to 4.45 percent.

So long as the interest rates come in at 5.25 percent or under, the School Committee will issue permanent bonds for the building project within the next three weeks, Salerno said.

“We’re going to act now,” Salerno said. “Interest rates could be higher a year from now.”

He said the interest rates have shown a downward trend. They had been down below 4 percent, and now are trending back upward to 4.5 percent, he said.

Regional School Superintendent M. Martin O’Shea in presentations before the voters in Wilbraham and Hampden in December told voters that estimates are that bonding within the next few weeks will save taxpayers in Hampden and Wilbraham approximately $50 on their yearly tax bills for the life of the bond, between 2014 and 2042.

On the average $295,000 home in Wilbraham, the tax bill for the new high school starting in 2014 would be $260 per year, compared to $310 which originally had been projected, O’Shea said.

On the average $275,000 home in Hampden, the yearly tax bill starting in 2014 for the new high school would come down from a projected $300 to $240, O’Shea said.

Because the bids received for the project were lower than anticipated, the total amount which the two towns will have to bond has been reduced from $34.8 million to $31 million, O’Shea said. The balance of the $22 million in bonds will be issued at a later date.

O’Shea said 62 percent of the construction cost of the project is being financed by the Massachusetts School Building Authority.

“This is a good time to borrow,” O’Shea said.

Salerno said, “We did not create this economy or interest rates, but we’re going to take advantage of it.”